Improvement in refrigerators



1. LORENZ an. r. w. sauoen.

I Refrigerators. No. 145,066.

Patented Dec. 2,1873.

Inventors.

Attes t M/fimz. JM.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JACOB LORENZ AND HENRY F. W. BENDER, OF HAMILTON, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN REFRIGERATORS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 145,066. dated December 2, 1873'; application filed May 29, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, J A0013 LORENZ and HENRY F. W. BENDER, of Hamilton, in the county of Butler, in the State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Refrigerators; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

Figure 1 represents a front view of our improved refrigerator or ice-chest, with two of the doors removed and a portion broken away to exhibit the interior arrangement. Fig. 2 represents a top view of the same, with a portion of the cover broken away to exhibit the ventilating-tubes, &c.; and Fig. 3 represents a vertical section, in which the air-induction tube and water-pipe are exhibited.

'The object of our invention is to provide such an arrangement of condensing-tubes and ventilating -orifices as will most effectively cause a continuous change of air and ventilation of the refrigerator in which ice is kept for preserving food for family use.

The metal tubes used serve as condensers of the air which enters them, as they are placed in contact with the lining or ice-receptacle, and as the air cools it descends. That within the chest is expelled as it becomes rarefied, and that introduced from without is cooled in the course of its introduction. Thus a continuous circulation of pure air is kept up within the ice-chest. We have constructed our refrigerator or chest with suitable doors, and provided it with a receptacle or pan near the top for holding the ice. We also furnish it with slotted shelves, upon which edibles can be placed in the usual manner. A suitable tube, 8, to conduct off the water from the ice-pan, is also provided, and passes down through the air-induction tube.

The case of wood is made of two thicknesses, and it has an inner lining, b, of zinc. The t hree'sided rectangular air-eduction tubes 0, made also of zinc, are inserted in vertical grooves formed for the purpose in the inner wood casing, as represented. The zinc lining b serves to form the inner side of the air-tubes c, as illustrated in the drawings. The series of perforations w w, made through the zinc lining 1), directly below the cover or top B of the chest, communicate with an air-passage, D, around the upper edge of the refrigerator-case. This air-space is formed by removing a por= tion of the inner wooden case and extending the zinc lining I) up as high as the outer casing, so that the cover I) fits closely upon the lining, as well as the outer wooden case. This airspace D I denominate the warm-air passage, and the zinc tubes 0 communicate directly with it at their upper ends, and at their lower ends holes 19, made through the wooden casing, provide the outlets for the impure air, which descends through these tubes. A spirally-flanged ventilating-register is inserted in the side of the case near the top, at d, for the admission of air. The air admitted through this register descends, as it cools, through a metal conductor, n, which is like the tubes 0, and is placed in. contact with that portion of the zinc lining b where the ice-pan will be located, and as the air is cooled and condensed in tube at, it descends and enters the refrigerator at at near the bottom. Moreover, the pipe 8, to carry oil the water from the ice-pan, (which will be placed near the top of the ice-chest,) is located within the metal induction-tube n, and also cools the inflowin g current of air which will descend around it.

The effect of this construction and arrange- .them from recess D, and it descends and escapes through the openings 1), as indicated by the arrows c'. This operation is continuous,

causing the lighter air within the chest to rise and pass through apertures w 00, and descend down the metal tubes 0 as fast as it is condensed sufficiently by contact with the cold eduction-tubes c.

When any of the doors are being opened, a current of air will be drawn into the refrigerator from the induction-tube n, and the closing of the doors will cause the air within the re cess D to pass down the tubes 0, which conduct the vitiated air out of the chest.

By hanging a valve in front of the inlet m, V

tion to each other, and the outer casing a and zinc lining I), substantially as described, for the purpose specified.

2. The arrangement of the Water pipe 8 within the air-induction tube a, to aid in coolin g the inflowing air, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

Witness our hands this 23d day of May, A. D. 1873.

JACOB LORENZ. HENRY F. W. BENDER.

Witnesses:

' H. P. K. PEcK,

ERNST BENDER. 

